Public Digital Humanities
Humanities research that reaches, and is shaped by, public audiences.
Overview
Public digital humanities asks how humanities research can be made available to, and made with, audiences beyond the university: digital archives, interactive exhibits, immersive cultural-heritage reconstructions, and community-based projects that treat the public as collaborators.
Public-facing work at the ARCH arises from the center's research and scholarly mission. We build these projects because the questions they answer matter to communities, to regional history, and to the publics who hold a stake in how the past and present are represented.
Research directions
- Community-based and participatory digital archives.
- Immersive (VR/AR) cultural-heritage reconstruction and exhibits.
- Interactive data visualization for public audiences.
- Digital gallery projects; cultural-heritage collaborations.
- Crowdsourced transcription and public scholarship platforms.
- Long-term digital preservation of community and regional materials.
- Digital preservation of global humanities scholarship.
Canonical readings
A starter shelf.
2006
Digital History
Daniel J. Cohen & Roy Rosenzweig
The foundational handbook for public-facing digital scholarship.
2016
Public, First (in Debates in the Digital Humanities)
Sheila A. Brennan
The canonical argument for centering public audiences in DH.
2018
The Theory and Craft of Digital Preservation
Trevor Owens
The standard text bridging digital archives and public stewardship.
People in this area